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The Great Out-of-State Migration: Where Students Go

By NICK STRAYERAUG. 26, 2016

Public colleges and universities have historically served their own state residents, but the number of out-of-state freshmen attending them has nearly doubled since 1986, according to Department of Education data.Related Article

Exodus of Public University Students

Arrows are in proportion to number of freshmen

leaving their home state to attend public

universities in other states.*

WASH.

ME.

MONT.

N.D.

VT.

ORE.

MINN.

IDAHO

WIS.

N.Y.

MA.

S.D.

CT.

MICH.

R.I.

WYO.

PA.

NEB.

N.J.

IOWA

NEV.

Rising tuition and declining financial aid in Illinois made other states more attractive.

OHIO

MD.

ILL.

IND.

UTAH

COLO.

W.VA.

CALIF.

VA.

KAN.

MO.

KY.

N.C.

TENN.

OKLA.

ARK.

S.C.

ARIZ.

N.M.

More than 17,000 California residents left the state for other public universities in 2014.

GA.

ALA.

MISS.

TEX.

LA.

FLA.

Texas public universities automatically admit the top 10 percent of each high school's graduating class, forcing those who miss the cut to go elsewhere.

HAWAII

Exodus of Public University Students

Arrows are in proportion to number of freshmen

leaving their home state to attend public

universities in other states.*

WASH.

ME.

MONT.

N.D.

VT.

ORE.

MINN.

IDAHO

WIS.

N.Y.

MA.

S.D.

CT.

MICH.

R.I.

WYO.

NEB.

PA.

N.J.

IOWA

NEV.

Rising tuition and declining financial aid in Illinois made other states more attractive.

OHIO

MD.

ILL.

IND.

UTAH

W.VA.

CALIF.

VA.

KAN.

COLO.

MO.

KY.

N.C.

TENN.

OKLA.

ARK.

S.C.

ARIZ.

N.M.

GA.

ALA.

More than 17,000 California residents left the state for other public universities in 2014.

MISS.

TEX.

LA.

FLA.

Texas public universities automatically admit the top 10 percent of each high school's graduating class, forcing those who miss the cut to go elsewhere.

HAWAII

Exodus of Public University Students

Arrows are in proportion to number of freshmen leaving their home state to attend public universities in other states.*

WASH.

ME.

MONT.

N.D.

ORE.

MINN.

WIS.

N.Y.

IDAHO

S.D.

MICH.

WYO.

IOWA

PA.

NEV.

NEB.

OHIO

MD.

ILL.

UTAH

COLO.

W.VA.

CALIF.

VA.

KAN.

MO.

KY.

N.C.

TENN.

OKLA.

ARK.

S.C.

ARIZ.

N.M.

GA.

ALA.

MISS.

TEX.

LA.

FLA.

HAWAII

Exodus of Public University Students

Arrows are in proportion to number of freshmen leaving their home state to attend public universities in other states.*

MINN.

ILL.

CALIF.

TEX.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2014 data. *Note: Arrows show only movements of 500 or more students.

Students leave behind state financial aid, incur added transportation costs and pay ever-higher out-of-state rates set by underfunded universities. Why do they go?

Some yearn for independence or fun (ski Colorado! Vermont!) or are lured by merit aid (the University of Alabama, Ohio State, University of South Carolina). They may have been shut out of their own flagships (California, Texas, Illinois) or are taking advantage of reciprocity agreements (Midwest Student Exchange Program), which allow neighbors to pay reduced or in-state tuition.

Thomas G. Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, offers another explanation. “The surge in emigrants,” he says, “bespeaks troubles in the public four-year institutions in the home states of these residents.”

The Flow of Students for Each State

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Correction: Oct. 27, 2016

This map has been updated to show movements of 500 or more freshman between states. Initially it showed the movements of students to schools attended by 250 or more freshmen from the same state.